Therapeutic Writing - Sick! workshop

Sick! Living with Invisible Illness is an art project that encourages an open and honest dialogue, to reduce the stigma and loneliness of living with a chronic condition and facilitate understanding and empathy.An exhibition of artworks created in response to this theme was on show at Sun Pier House in Chatham, Kent throughout August 2017. A programme of free workshops and talks accompanied the exhibition. This phase of the project was made possible with support from Arts Council England and Medway Council. It is hoped that the project will tour to other venues in the UK.In November 2017, the Wellcome Collection in London invited the Sick! team to run two zine workshops on the theme of invisible illness, and members of the public made their own mini-zines and contributed to the collaborative Sick! Zines #2 and #3.In December 2017 and January 2018, the Sick! project brings four more creative workshops to INTRA in Rochester, Kent. Creative visual and written approaches to self-publishing will be explored including therapeutic writing, drawing, printmaking and bookbinding. The workshops will be offered freethanks to a small grant from Involving Medway, as part of Medway Clinical Commissioning Group's work with community health.

Sick! Living with Invisible Illness

A workshop for people who want to begin telling their stories and exploring healing through writing. In two hours, creative writing teacher Sam Fentiman-Hall will guide you using simple exercises. Our theme is invisible illness, but you can write about whatever you like in the workshop.
There are tools to help you explore writing your own stories, or ways you think and feel. It is very likely you may want to write just for yourself during the session and maybe people very close to you, and the writing can be kept completely private. If you want to develop the writing into something to share more widely, this will be supported, but is not expected. DIY publications or 'zines' typically contain content from a very personal standpoint, one person’s stories, opinions, passions or individual means of expression. You can make a pamphlet with just one copy if you want to.
Therapeutic writing can be like keeping a journal, an can include many different types of approach: writing letters that are not to be sent, having a dialogue with a part of your body, telling the story of a personal experience, expressing a poetic response to something challenging, taking mindful pleasure in small things, or writing spontaneously. Sometimes things that can’t be said, can be written. Although we will be introducing you to techniques that you can use, we will not be teaching you to write in any ‘correct’ sense, therapeutic writing is about you exploring your own expression through writing, and there is no right or wrong way to do that. It can be very life-affirming to write creatively.
The workshop is open to Medway residents 16+ years old who are affected by invisible illness - those with illnesses themselves, but also carers, partners, friends or family etc. living in the Medway towns.  No previous experience of creative or therapeutic writing is needed, this is a gentle session for you to self-reflect and try out writing as a way to cope with, heal from, or understand your situation in a different way. It may lead to communicating your feelings with other people, or it may become a tool to use entirely privately.
In the afternoon a separate 3 hour drop-in session will run, allowing people to continue with their writing, or read our collection of health-related zines, or join in with a zine-making activity with some basic printmaking. There is no need to book for the drop-in session, and you don’t need to have attended previous days. Each class and drop-in session is a separate event and you are welcome to attend as many or few as you like. The drop-in sessions are listed and described on our <A HREF="https://www.facebook.com/pg/sickexhibition/events/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Facebook events page</A>. 
This is the first in a series of four workshop days through December 2017 and January 2018, offered free thanks to a small grant from Involving Medway, as part of Medway Clinical Commissioning Group's work with community health. If you live outside Medway but would like to join us, please message us as we may be able to invite you too, depending on availability.

INTRA

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